


the world is broken (and it needs me to fix it)

by Harryissuchalittleshit



Series: To Be Loyal and Young and Just in the Aftermath of War [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Cancer, Character Study, Coffee Addiction, F/M, Forgiveness, Healers, Homophobia, M/M, Minor Character Deaths, Suicide, War, gay slurs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-23
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 10:35:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25469398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harryissuchalittleshit/pseuds/Harryissuchalittleshit
Summary: Justin has always loved taking things apart and putting them back together. It was how he survived the War, how he healed the people that came to him.Somethings just happen, and it's up to him to make it better, to fix the broken.
Relationships: Justin Finch-Fletchley/Evander Davis
Series: To Be Loyal and Young and Just in the Aftermath of War [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1628245
Kudos: 1





	the world is broken (and it needs me to fix it)

**Author's Note:**

> And here is Justin! This one was probably the most therapeutic of the bunch. TW: there is a part where a gay slur is used, if you skip over the section where Theodore Nott is first mentioned, you'll miss the use of the word.

Justin liked to figure out how things worked.

He liked theories and ideas, he liked to take things apart and put them back together. He took apart the broken toaster when he was seven, and put it back together at eight.

It was no longer broken.

When he was eleven, a women with a tight bun and stern eyes told him that he was magic.

He asked her how that worked.

~`~

His name had been put down on the list for Eton, just like his father and brother and grandfather. His family had money, but it was made in one generation, unlike Ernie’s family. His family was new money, but he was new magic.

He had a world of trying to figure out how things worked.

He wasn’t the only one, Hufflepuffs were curious, they were loyal and hardworking, yes, but they were curious about the world. Gryffindors were curious about what they could do for the world, Slytherins were curious about what the world could do for them, and Ravenclaws were curious about the knowledge the world could give them.

Justin just wanted to see what the world had for him to take apart.

~`~

“My dad is a Healer, and my grandpa is one, and my great-grandpa was one too,” said Ernie as they sat together on the floor outside of Professor Sprout’s office. Their OWLs were approaching, they needed to make a decision. “It’s what I’ll be too.”

Susan was going to be a famous potion maker, or take after her Aunt Amelia and be an Auror, or take after her parent’s apothecary. Hannah could take over the music shop, or she could do something else, she could find something that filled her.

Ernie was his best friend, but it had been Susan that visited him every day when he was petrified their second year, and Hannah who had put food under his pillow.

“Mum and dad want me to take over the apothecary,” said Susan from across the hallway, Hannah at her side, the pamphlets spread out in front of them. “I could make potions and sell them, maybe even take commission or something.”

Maybe Susan had chosen her path.

“I don’t know yet,” said Hannah, she was reading about the Magical transportation center in the Ministry of Magic. Justin had yet to even step into the Ministry, politics had never really interested him. “But I’m sure Professor Spout will be able to help me figure out something.”

Justin nodded, he read every one of the pamphlets, but nothing said anything about taking apart the world and putting it back together.

“What about you Justin?” asked Ernie, as Audrey Phillips stepped out of Professor Sprout’s office, she was wearing her uniform, but with a yellow ribbon tied in her hair. She was pretty, and she was smart, her twin brother Lucas was going to be the Minister of Magic someday.

“How did it go?” asked Justin as Audrey sat down on the floor beside him, while Megan went into the office. He had always been good at avoiding difficult questions.

“Alright,” said Audrey, smoothing down her robes. “She asked me what I wanted to do with my life and I told her.”

“Which is?” asked Susan, sounding as if she already knew.

“To open my own clothing store in Diagon Alley,” said Audrey, sounding as sure as she always did. Audrey was determined to do what she wanted with her life, and no one could stand in her way.

If only it could be that easy for Justin.

~`~

“You put an expansion charm on it, right?” asked Justin, as he stared at Hannah’s open trunk.

“Yes,” said Hannah as she held open the lid of her trunk. “Now get in before I push you in.”

Justin rolled his eyes at her and did as he was told, climbing into her trunk and letting her lock him in. He had his own trunk in his pocket, shrunk down for easy carrying, his bag was full of food he took from his kitchen and his favorite mystery novel.

He would go to Hogwarts anyway he could…even if it meant being thrown into Hannah’s trunk.

Being trapped in a small space was nothing new. He had let himself be defined and trapped and put into a box. Coming out to his parents had been easy, being accepted by them was different, mostly as they hadn’t accepted him.

His friends did though, but he didn’t have a place to stay when his parents threw him out. Susan was running, reporting and listening and disappearing in and out of rooms, she was an Order member. Hannah was trying to feed herself still, she was trying to find herself, trying to figure out her mother’s death. Ernie left his parents at the sight of snakes and skulls, went to hide with his girlfriend.

Wayne’s family was in hiding and Megan was with him. Audrey and her brothers had disappeared from the world, no one had seen or heard from them since they stepped of the platform in June.

Stephan was somewhere in the country, but no one had known where. Zacharias was safe like Ernie, but Justin would never ask him for help, he had broken too many promises.

LeeAnne was dead, her twin sister the only surviving member of her family.

Justin’s brother was overseas, and he had told his parents to follow suit.

The Death Eaters were after him, they would go looking for him at his parent’s home first.

“Justin,” said Hannah, opening the trunk for him. Justin squinted his eyes at the light and took Hannah and Susan’s hands, letting them help him out.

“Am I supposed to feel this dizzy?” asked Justin as he sat down on one of the empty beds. Audrey and LeeAnne were missing, and the room had accommodated, three beds instead of five.

“Eat something,” said Susan, pushing a napkin into his hands. “There’s work to do.”

~`~

Making a map of Hogwarts was easier said than done, rescuing students from the dungeon was easier said than done, and fighting the Carrows and Snape was easier said than done.

Justin didn’t like easy.

Justin liked problems that he could solve through hard work and gained knowledge. He liked to take things apart and learn everything he could. He choose St. Mungo’s, choose to become a Healer because the human body was something of a mystery to him.

He liked solving the unsolvable.

“That hallway is longer,” said Neville Longbottom, pointing at the new line on the parchment. “This is supposed to be accurate.”

“Then get Megan to draw it,” said Justin, throwing his quill down on the table. They had lost Luna during the Christmas holidays, she didn’t come back, now Ginny was gone, a letter in her mother’s handwriting came for Neville yesterday.

Neville sighed and sat back in his chair, he looked older than seventeen. Weary and tired, he was beginning to look older than the picture of his parents that he had put up when they moved into the Room of Requirement. His parents were twenty in the picture, it was their wedding day, his mother in a white dress and his father in dark robes.

He was older at seventeen than his parents at twenty.

He was fighting in a war, his parents were getting married.

“Sorry,” mumbled Justin, rubbing his eyes before picking up his quill again. “You know what it’s like.”

They all knew what it was like.

“It’s okay,” said Neville with a small smile, he was humoring Justin, but it made him feel better. “I can get Megan to finish, but Aberforth is calling for me, I need to go.”

“Alright,” said Justin, turning back to the parchment because he knew that he wouldn’t be able to sleep until he finished putting the map together. Susan had showed up again after a few days away, Hannah was hungry and cold, and Ernie was playing with the radio along with Seamus.

Justin went back to work, he had built the radio that Ernie and Seamus were toying with, he had recharmed the DA coins for any of them to make a message, and he had found every secret exit in and out of the school. He had hung the collection of hammocks and had written all the schedules for patrols and sleeping. He had built a community, he had created structure, and he had even set up a medical center.

He had finally decided that becoming a Healer was what he was meant to do. He would be able to solve problems, he would be able to help others, and he would be able to do more for the world.

But first, lightning needed to strike.

~`~

His shoulder was on fire, the pain was to the point of unbearable, he was sure that he would pass out soon.

So he talked about his favorite fantasy, of when he and Ernie and all of the others who wanted to be Healers started training at St. Mungo’s. He already knew that Susan would take the offer from the Aurors, even before they really offered it. Susan had a family legacy to up hold.

Ernie also had a family legacy, healing was in his blood.

Hannah had a legacy to escape.

Justin had nothing, he had nothing but a raging pain in his shattered shoulder.

He knew that Ernie wasn’t listening, but the pain kept him rambling. Kept him talking even as the Healer finally came over to him, stuffed a pain potion down his throat, and fixed the curse shoulder.

Ernie’s leg was damaged in a way that couldn’t be completely fixed.

“Justin shut up,” said Susan, as she helped him to his feet.

Justin wrapped his good arm around her shoulders and let her lead him away from Ernie and over to the Hufflepuff table. He hadn’t eaten since the morning before, he had been saving his rations so he could eat with Hannah and Ernie and Susan. He was supposed to have time.

“This is why you never got a boyfriend,” said Susan as she put him down across from Hannah. “You just babble on forever.”

“It’s what I’m good at Susan,” Justin told her, as she sat down beside him. “That and fixing things.”

“Yeah we’ll see,” said Hannah as she started spooning out eggs onto four plates. “But I think that Benji guy, the Ravenclaw, likes you.”

Justin smiled, his favorite thing about Hannah and Susan was that they could always talk about boys together, not that they had in quite a while. Though Hannah had let slip a while ago that she had a crush on Neville, and Susan had told him during patrols one night that she met a Muggle boy coming back from a mission.

Justin loved his girls for including him, but he never had anything more than a crush.

“Yeah well,” said Justin with a half shrug, “we’ll see what the future brings.”

~`~

Justin redoes his seventh year, the only Hufflepuff in their year to do so. He studies with Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner, Millicent Bulstrode, Draco Malfoy, and Daphne Greengrass. The eight of them are known as ‘Super Seventh Years’, older than the current seventh years, but in the same year.

Hermione Granger is their leader, but they only ever listen to Neville.

The day he graduates, he has three people cheering him on, Hannah, Susan, and Ernie. He doesn’t have parents who accept him, but he does have a family that loves him unconditionally.

Then he goes to St. Mungo’s.

Ernie wants to bring life into the world, he wants to watch children grow and learn and become more. Justin wants to take that life and protect it.

The first kid he meets with Leukemia is sixteen.

Aria Smith is a Ravenclaw, she was a second year during the war, and Justin saved her life once by pulling her out of the dungeons. He saved her life again by pumping her full of controlled poison and sending her back to school.

She would become Ernie’s patient in ten years.

~`~

“So Audrey told me that she ran into you outside of my office,” said Ernie as Justin poured himself a cup of coffee. “She wanted to know what you’re doing.”

“Did you tell her?” asked Justin, passing over the coffee pot.

“Yeah,” said Ernie, adding creamer to his coffee. “But I don’t think she put two and two together. I don’t really want her to have to.”

“Me either,” said Justin, while Rose, Ernie’s wife wrapped her arm through Ernie’s. “But we all know how it goes. Somethings aren’t helped. Life moves in unexpected ways.”

That could be his motto, _life moves in unexpected ways_ , and he was around to fix the unexpected. He was around to test and observe and fix children who’s cells wanted to kill them.

Somedays, he lost them, but more days than not, he kept them. He made children better, he got them healthy enough to go to school, healthy enough to graduate, healthy enough to get married and have children.

Sometimes his patients weren’t children.

“I should go,” said Justin, before finishing the last of his coffee and pouring himself another cup for the road. Ernie put creamer in his, Rose liked sugar, Justin took his black, just how Susan always did, while Hannah put honey in both her coffee and tea. “I have to check in with Nott.”

“Have fun,” said Ernie, because he helped Padma give birth to both of her sons, both of Theodore Nott’s sons. “Hopefully the kids aren’t awake.”

“I’ll take Devansh and Hajari over their parents any day,” Justin told him as he walked out of the little coffee room that had been added to St. Mungo’s after the war.

He could easily deal with children, they asked questions that mattered, it was the adults and parents that made everything complicated. Children knew when to throw in the towel, they knew when the treatment was done, they knew the answers before Justin did.

It was their parents that got in the way, their stubbornness that caused their child’s death.

It had taken the loss of a patient, of a little boy with dark hair and glasses and a bright smile and dreams of flying on a real broom that made Justin tell off the next set of parents that tried to tell him how to do his job. He was the Healer, he did his training, he did his work, he knew how to save the sick and the weary.

Theodore Nott had pictures on his bedside table from his two sons, he had a pile of unopen and unread letters in the drawer, and ‘get well soon’ cards lining the window sills.

Back at Hogwarts, Theodore Nott had cursed the word ‘Faggot’ onto Justin’s face their sixth year.

Now Theodore Nott was asking Justin to keep him alive.

One slip of his hand while measuring Theodore’s chemo drugs and he could die.

“How do we feel today?” asked Justin as he looked over the chart at the end of the bed. “Tired? Nauseous? Any aches or pains?”

Justin got cursed by more than one person when Theodore Nott had branded him.

“I’m fine, better than the last few days,” said Theodore, and Justin looked up from his chart. Theodore was thin and paler than he should’ve ever been, his cheeks hollow, his dark hair gone, he was sick, but he was getting better. This was the hard part for most people, it wasn’t watching their loved ones get worst, it was watching them get better.

It was the thought of them getting sick again that killed most dreams of the future.

“The after treatment high,” Justin told him, they were still days, weeks, months away from sending him home. “You’ll feel like shit again in a few days. Padma will yell at me again.”

He could honestly handle Padma, she was just concerned, just afraid of raising her sons on her own, of them not knowing their father.

“She yells at me too,” said Theodore, and Justin could hear the humor in his words. The only problem was, Justin could be friends with Padma, he could never forgive Theodore for outing him to all of Hogwarts. “She’s probably nicer to you though.”

That actually made Justin smile.

“I’m going to order a couple of blood tests over the next few days, so try to eat as much as you can,” Justin told him, glancing again at the cards in the window sill. Theodore had a community of friends to surround himself in, he had children who drew him pictures, and he had Padma who loved him and hated him at the same time.

Justin had Ernie and Rose, Susan when she could get away from the Ministry, and Hannah on nights when he needed a drink.

That was it, that was all he had.

~`~

Evander Arthur Davis was two years older than Justin, but they fit in together. Evander, Evan, watched over his patients after surgery. He was kind and gentle, and let Justin get sleep after hours standing over a table.

“I say two hours,” said Evan as he tossed a card into the hat.

“At least four,” said Justin, as he flicked his card a little too hard and it spun over the hat and onto the ground.

“Hopefully you guess better than you throw cards,” said Evan with a wide grin, and Justin rolled his eyes.

“Watch us both be wrong,” said Justin, returning Evan’s smile, before leaning forward and kissing his cheek.

It had taken six months of flirting to get Evan to ask him out, then another six months of dating for Justin to move in with him. Now it was all about waiting for the legislation to catch up for them to get married.

“Can I change my guess to six hours?” asked Evan, and Justin let himself giggle into Evan’s shoulder. Part of him just felt giddy to be with Evan, the other part of him was exhausted, both were worried about the little girl asleep a few feet from him.

“No,” said Justin, because the rule was if one of them went over the other won, and the winner got coffee bought for them from a real coffee shop. If they both went over, then whoever was closest lost.

“I’ll still buy you coffee,” said Evan, because Justin always won. He had a way of fixing people, which meant he knew when they would wake up.

“Tempting but no,” Justin told him, resting his head on Evan’s chest. He felt Evan run his fingers through his short dark hair, making it messy and untidy.

Justin closed his eyes, letting a wave of calm run over him, letting his heartbeat slow and match Evan’s. He was exhausted, eight hours of surgery, another six hours of rounds and consulting his patients, fourteen hours was a short day, but he never got time with Evan.

“Three hours, forty-eight minutes,” said Evan, when Justin finally opened his eyes. “The kid is still asleep.”

“I still have twelve minutes,” said Justin as he sat up and took the charmed cup of coffee from Evan.

“Hannah had the twins while you were asleep.”

Justin stared at Evan and took a sip from his coffee, letting the heat more than the taste wake him up. Evan handed him the second charmed cup and sent him on his way.

“Thank you,” Justin told him, kissing him softly and slipping out of the room. His first cup was gone before he left the ward, and he was starting on the second one when he found Susan outside of the nursery window.

Susan looked the same as she did the last time Justin had seen her, tired and unsure with what she was doing. She had given up her pigtails sometime in the summer between their fourth and fifth years, Justin missed the pigtails on her worst days.

“Franklin Adam and Allyson Colette,” said Susan, before taking a sip of her own paper cup of coffee. “After their parents.”

“Hannah only wanted one kid,” said Justin, looping his arm in Susan’s as he found the babies.

“Which one of you is godfather?”

Hannah was godmother to Carson, Ernie and Rose’s oldest child, and Susan was godmother to Maggie, Ernie and Rose’s current youngest child. Justin was already promised to the next baby they had.

“Hannah wants to talk to us,” said Ernie, walking up to them, his own coffee in hand. Justin finished his second cup on the walk to Hannah’s room, he didn’t know when he and his friends got so dependent on coffee and caffeine, but it could’ve been worse.

It had been at least a few months since they had all got together, since Hannah had told them that she was expecting. She wasn’t the first of them to have a baby, but Justin had expected Susan to beat Hannah at starting a family.

“The three of you are going to be Frankie’s godparents,” said Hannah the second they walked in the door, her usually light eyes dark. “Harry, Ron, and Hermione are going to be Ali’s.”

“Frankie and Ali,” said Susan quietly, and Justin had the feeling that this would be the last time they were all going to be together for a while.

Susan was good at hiding in crowds, at disappearing without a trace, at listening and waiting. She was meant to be in a potions lab somewhere, creating and changing the world one potion, one ingredient at a time.

She wasn’t meant for the Aurors.

“We’ll watch over them,” promised Justin, because he knew that it wouldn’t be one without the other.

~`~

Molly Weasley is three years old.

She had bright red curls, warm brown eyes, freckles that cover her head to toe. She’s warm and bright, she laughs after everything, especially whispered to her by Lucy, her twin sister. She is more than just a little girl, she’s Audrey’s daughter, she’s sunshine and laughter and only three years old.

Three year olds still get Leukemia.

Fifteen year olds get Leukemia again.

Justin had watched kids die on the surgical table, he had watched teenagers die in their beds on quiet Tuesday mornings, he had watched adults the same age as him fall asleep and not wake up. He had watched his friends and classmates and fellow DA members and Order members get hit by green spells and never wake up again.

Susan hid from the war, Hannah avoided the war, Ernie remembered the war a little too hard, and Justin tried to keep his patients alive through their own wars.

Molly Weasley was three years old when she was brought to him to heal. She was fifteen when she was given to him again.

Justin was older now, he was married to Evan, but still spent more time at St. Mungo’s than his home. He had a second godson, William MacMillan, and he had his first and only goddaughter, Eleanor Bones.

Susan had left their world to find her own happiness, Hannah had left their world to die.

Ernie had four kids, he had Rose, he held onto his memories.

Aria Smith grew up to have four kids of her own. Theodore Nott had five more kids after he went into remission, he had invited Justin to his wedding, and Justin had gone with Evan. Molly Weasley would make mistakes in her life, but she wouldn’t die at fifteen, Justin wouldn’t let her.

“Healer Phillips,” said Justin as he poured himself a cup of coffee, it was his third of the morning, or maybe his third since he came to work. “Came to visit your niece again?”

Rory smiled and sipped his tea, before answering Justin, “I came to see Rey actually, she’s always here now too.”

“Audrey doesn’t seem as worried as she was last time,” said Justin, it was a simple observation, but a true one. Susan was the one who could give it more justice.

“Molly’s not three years old anymore,” said Rory, which is what they both knew, but it didn’t mean anything to a concerned parent. Percy was still a wreck, Audrey had just always been better at hiding her anguish.

Audrey had lost everyone except for Rory, Percy only lost one sibling.

“They’re both stronger than anyone I know,” said Rory, smiling at Justin as if he had nothing to lose. As if he wouldn’t lose both of his nieces if one fell, as if he wouldn’t lose his sister and brother-in-law, as if nothing could touch him.

He had more faith in Justin than he did himself.

“Yeah,” agreed Justin, because he had seen what the human body could do. He had seen babies be born, he had watched bones mend themselves, he had once been petrified for six months. “They are strong.”

Molly Weasley was no long three years old, and he wouldn’t let her die anymore at fifteen than at three.

~`~

Justin stood in front of Avery Lightfield’s grave.

He was ten, no, he had died at ten. He should’ve gotten a Hogwarts letter, should’ve been sorted, become a prefect, graduate. He should’ve grown and changed and moved forward in his life.

Justin kept their names, their pictures, their charts in a drawer in his desk.

His office was a mess, years spent sleeping on the cot he kept in the closet and eating at his desk kept it from being clean. He was married to his job, married to his husband who worked just as many hours as him. He spent more hours at St. Mungo’s than anywhere else, awake or asleep.

Avery Lightfield was the first patient he ever lost.

He cried and screamed until Rose found him and made him take a sleep draught. The fear didn’t pass, and he stopped taking orders and started giving them.

Next was Hannah, her grave was empty, her body cremated and given to her children to hold onto. She had stepped out in front of a bus to save herself, he should’ve noticed something was wrong sooner.

“I’m pregnant.”

Justin turned his head and looked down at Susan. He hadn’t seen her since she had Eleanor, but she sent him letters like clockwork every two weeks. His goddaughter looked just like Susan, shy and quiet, but ready to listen to the world and what it gave her.

“Aren’t you a little old for number three?” asked Justin as she looped her arm through his.

“This is the first one that wasn’t a surprise,” said Susan, as she patted her stomach. “The first one we planned.”

“Congratulations.”

“You know that you’re allowed to come around and see the kids, right?” said Susan, as she looked up at him. Her eyes were wet with tears, but not in a sad way.

“I’m too busy, you know that,” he told her, and she frowned up at him. Susan was no longer the Auror, she had softened over the years, getting married and having children, having her own business had changed her.

She was _happy_ now.

“I want you in my children’s life Justin,” said Susan, her voice softer than he deserved. “If I can get Harry Potter in my house once a month for dinner, you can come around once every six months.”

Justin nodded, without Hannah, the three of them were off kilter.

“You work eighty hours a week at the hospital, Justin, it’s okay to take some time off,” said Susan, and Justin sighed.

“This is my time off Susan,” Justin told her, as he pulled her away from the grave and out of the graveyard. “I spend it in front of graves and try to forget how they ended up there.”

“Hannah was sick, Avery was also,” said Susan as they started walking down the street. “Somethings can’t be helped, Justin.”

It was what he always said.

“I’ll make time to come visit you and the kids, bring Evan around also, but my patients need me,” said Justin as they came to the disapparation point. “They need me to make them better.”

“You know that I worry about you Justin,” said Susan, putting her hands on his face. “You’re a good person, you love your patients, you take care of the Wizard World. You fix things, it’s what you always do.”

Justin nodded and leaned forward to kiss her forehead.

“I can promise dinner twice a month, it’s what I do for Ernie,” Justin told her, before hugging her tightly. He left first, heading back to the hospital, where he had work to do.

~`~

Justin had been a pallbearer before, at Hannah’s funeral, and now again at his oldest godson’s funeral. Frankie Longbottom had killed himself, he had killed himself in Diagon Alley and the Wizarding World had watched.

Harry and Ron and Ernie were the other three carrying with him.

“Right or left?” asked Ron as he walked over to them, his face sober and cold.

“He can’t carry anything on his left shoulder,” said Ernie, pointing at Justin, “and I can’t carry anything on my right.”

“I have no objections,” said Susan, as she adjusted her youngest on her hip. Amelia looked just like Dudley, Susan’s husband, blonde hair and blue eyed, chubby and adorable. “And if you think I’m not carrying him, you’re ridiculous Harry.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” said Harry as he walked over to Susan and took Amelia out of her arms. “The kids wanted to carry him, but I told them no. Neville asked us to do this.”

“Where’s Hermione then?” asked Ernie, as Amelia was passed over to him, he was her godfather. “Six godparents, six pallbearers.”

“Another coffin to carry,” said Hermione, walking in and smelling like cigarette smoke, Justin couldn’t judge her, he was on his tenth cup of coffee for the morning. “Sorry I couldn’t help myself.”

“Depression runs in their family,” said Ernie, as he cuddled Amelia, “we should’ve reached out sooner.”

Justin nodded, when Hannah died, he should’ve helped Neville more, they all should’ve been there for Frankie and Ali.

“It wasn’t your fault,” said Ali, appearing in front of them. She looked incredibly pale in her dark dress, her eyes were rimmed with red and bloodshot, she didn’t look like the same happy and carefree girl Justin had dinner with two weeks ago. “Frankie wanted to go.”

Justin remembered her bare feet at Hannah’s funeral, how she had ran the second she could, Frankie a few steps behind her. Now she stood with her violin case in hand, bare feet and still ready to run.

“Ali,” said Ron softly, his voice sad. This was none of their first funerals, but this one hurt more than the others.

“He told me that he wanted to go, and I told him that he was stupid, so he did it anyways,” said Ali, as she walked up to the coffin and opened the lid. Justin stared at Frankie’s face, calm and serene for the first time in years. “It’s my fault.”

Justin stepped forward and pulled her into his arms, letting her cry into his broken shoulder, letting his coffee spill on the ground. It was the price to pay, it was how this worked.

If he could fix one thing, it would be this relationship.

~`~

“The world is broken,” said Ernie, as they sat in front of the broken radio. Justin ignored him as he kept tinkering, he would get it to work if his life depended on it.

“Justin will fix it,” said Hannah, making the four of them a small plate with the rations she managed to hold onto. “It’s what he does.”

“Get him a pot of coffee first,” said Susan sitting down across from Justin and putting a cup in front of him.

“At least make it too hot to taste,” Justin told her as he took a sip of the cold burnt coffee. It was better than nothing, better than water.

“Want to say that again?” asked Susan and Justin looked up at her, she was tired, nothing new for any of them, but she was smiling at him.

“Thank you,” he told her, taking another sip from his cup and watching the smile touch Susan’s eyes for a moment.

They were all friends, they shared stories and life events and were a family in their own right. Susan was the older sister he never got to have, Ernie his twin in every way except relation, and Hannah the little sister he always wanted to protect.

They weren’t much, broken and hurting, trying to forget the horrors around them as fast as they happened.

“Enough sappiness,” said Hannah, putting a plate in front of each of them, rations that were far from filling but better than nothing. “Justin has to fix the world for us.”

~`~

Dannie Bones was a spark of life in Susan’s arms, just as Emmaline MacMillan had been at the same age in Ernie’s gentle hands. Babies were born every day in the world, life had a way of making everyone forget the death that had surrounded them.

He wouldn’t be one of Justin’s kids, neither would any of his siblings, Jacob, Eleanor, or Amelia. Just like how Emmaline wasn’t one of Justin’s kids, neither were Carson, Maggie, or William. Frankie and Ali weren’t either.

Justin kept a careful list of every patient he lost in a drawer in the desk of his office.

He kept another on his shoulder. Names, dates, ages.

When he was eighteen and war broke on Hogwarts grounds, his shoulder was shattered by a curse that knocked the wind out of him. He was sure that the fire in his shoulder, the pain, would kill him.

He lived despite it.

His back was lined with names in a neat row, followed by birth and death dates, then the ages.

Avery Lightfield was his first name, he should’ve been sorted into Gryffindor, he should’ve been made a prefect.

Theodore Nott lived on to have five more children after going into remission, he got married and had a life.

Molly Weasley came to him at three and again at fifteen, she would always send him flowers on her birthday until she died herself. She had a list of names on her shin, of friends she lost.

Some the names overlapped Justin’s.

Frankie Longbottom wasn’t the last one to be added, but his name carried a different weight, just like Hannah’s.

He was given a broken world and told to fix it, somedays he could and other days he couldn’t. It was his job to heal and mend the broken and the weary, it was his job to fix a world that didn’t want him in it.

Somethings just couldn’t be helped, but this could be.

**Author's Note:**

> What do you think?


End file.
